is an improper translation. That's "Tolerance: Simply Difficult" and that translates fine in English too since you can keep the same style while being accurate.
'Tolerance Isn’t Easy' is okay, freely translated. The trouble with translating it literally is that you lose the wordplay. 'Einfach' means both 'easy' and 'simple'. 'Tolerance: Easy and Difficult' is even more exact, but sounds kind of stupid in English, so I would prefer the original.
It more closely mirrors the German cadence and I've generally translated schwer as hard.
I always understood diffizil to be the correct translation of the word difficult.
Granted, I learned most of my German from my mother (plus a little self study and I lived there for nearly four years in my twenties), not in school. There are no doubt substantial gaps in my knowledge
the direct literal translation would be: tolerance: just difficult. einfach in german is used frequently when in english you would use just: just do it -> mach einfach
i do believe that in english simply can always be used in place of just, it's just less common so tolerance: simply difficult has the same meaning and sounds better as a book title.
As far as I know the Spiegel list, which has a lot of media and book shop presence does not count Amazon. The GfK in German has an exklusive deal with Amazon for data, and they do not deliver the Spiegel list data. The Spiegel list also uses an additional voting scheme among their journalists.
I have found the Spiegel list a bit weird for years, it contains a lot of highly light reading or polemic stuff like that guy yelling at today’s youth. That it does not include Amazon data explains quite something.
It's all German, obviously. And note that Spiegel has at least two different lists, for hardcover and paperback (plus a few more, less relevant).
FWIW I'm surprised by the claim that Spiegel has too much "light-reading" in its bestsellers. The usual charge is that they exclude certain lowbrow titles/categories.
There is not a single authorative list of bestsellers.
Also note that most of those list are supposed to be marketing tools, that can't afford to be too boring or predictable, not a reflections of "raw" sales data.
I think the Spiegel list also does not count total sales but relative sales over a time span, so you can become a "best seller author" with rather low sales numbers, when everybody has sold only few books. Strange system.
Besides the obvious sampling issue (The Spiegel as a reference), not sure there anything interesting in that list, because it's a reflection of:
- What is published in the German language (much smaller than in the English corpus)
- What is published at all (choices from local publishers)
- What matches the political/media agenda of the day/year: people are well known to read about the topics that is being talked about thru the numerous media channels they consume.
What is published and what sells is not always a reflection of the actual interests of the population at large - an easy proof is to show that it changes drastically from one year to another, akin to fashion more than anything else.
I am not sure what your comment is suggesting? Literally the third sentence is:
> Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series looking at the books, authors, and ideas capturing the zeitgeist in various countries this summer.
Isn't capturing the zeitgeist exactly trying to understand what's occupying the thoughts of a country? Also I think you're greatly exaggerating the speed of "fashion". These are all issues we have been talking about for a long, long time. From tolerance [1] to education [2]. I don't see at all how this arcticle talks about a irrelevant topics, I can assure you these are all isssues we have been discussing for a longer time now.
[1] since the refugee crisis it's one of the main themes of political discourse. We also experience a rise of the right and far-right and many are not sure how to react to this change of the policial landscape and where tolerance ends. I was quite active in politics 4 years ago and I remember it being important back then (which was even before the refugee crisis) because I had contact with a group organizing a counter demonstration to a far-right gathering.
[2] During my time in school i was in one of the first in a new system and when I finished (5 years ago) many switched back to the old system. Our pisa-scores are still a major point for public dicsussion.
Whenever i'm walking into a german bookstore nowadays, and see the Spiegel Bestseller display, anything in it is discarded as trash until further notice. Wasn't always that way for me, but since at least 20 years now.
Totally!
I am reading at least 2 books a month, and I am pretty sure not Spiegel nor the "Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels" is able to see that, because I am buying nearly all books international. ebook readers makes it easy to source books from authors directly, getting them from independent publishers and so on.
At least in my filter bubble it is pretty standard nowadays.
There are books and there are objects to back up your established beliefs in exchange for some cash without exposing you to any self-critical thoughts.
Of course that is a long etablished genre, but lately it gets a bit too obvious regarding any socio-political sentiment, relationship, diet or parenting style[1].
Germany's book and magazine market is also drifting into that category a lot, as basic information gathering shits more and more towards "free" online sources.
[1] as stated in the OP, Winterhoff is contrarian to most current research and just peddles his own theories for some decades now, as well as being a well booked pundit in talk shows.
> Since then, the entire eastern half of the country has been brought into the fold of Western liberal capitalism—but not entirely successfully. Unemployment is still higher in the east, and brain drain to the west remains common.
Not sure how to understand this. I have traveled to the DDR and to East Germany after the reunification many times, and by far and large life is much better than it ever was. People can actually buy cars instead of Trabants. Of course an economic gap has long lasting consequences (the long tail of economic policies) but what you should point out is how much better it is now than it was during the DDR era.
The populist right AfD is doing also very well among gainers after the reunification.
This is about perceived current inequality, not about a much needed compensation of double de-industrialization and de-capitalization of the east (post WWII and Post 1990-Treuhand). In saxony the local candidates are well off business men with a tendency to war lord like attiude to local power grabs and corruption.
AfD is not thematizing any of this but is currently on a well funded campaign run to retcon and ursurp the civil movement of 89/90 as a nationalist movement and branding itself of it's heir. All this while having no problems of having high ranking Stasi-Officers in the party itself.
East Germany's larger cities with significant university clusters (Leipzig, Dresden, Halle, Rostock, Potsdam, Jena-Weimar-Erfurt) are doing well, the rest is aging away on well paved streets. That populist reigns there is no suprise if educated post reunifcation youth works in those cities or elsewhere and might return some day. But wouldn't write off the east yet, since a populist right with maximum 1/3 support of electorate is not too uncommon and it's all about how conservative CDU positions itself in relation to that.
Successful industries and top universities are in majority in the Western side of the country, thus people looking for higher salaries or more job opportunities leave the Eastern side. Over time that results in important disparities.
I don’t believe that the article is saying that the situation was better during DDR time.
Ostalgie [0] is a very real thing, particularly for older generations who actually lived and worked in the GDR, without ever conflicting with the government. Because not everything East was bad, and not everything in the West was perfect either. There was actually quite a bit of economic symbiosis [1] going on between both sides back then.
That's why for many, the GDR also meant stability and progress. I can still remember my grandmother living in a house with wood ovens for heating, no running warm water, and a literal drop toilet on the second floor where you had to manually rinse with a big water pitcher.
She then got moved to an apartment inside a newly built Plattenbau [2], offering quite some comforts that were previously reserved to only very few households.
After the wall fell, she moved out to another flat, but by now is back to living in one of those Plattenbau apartments. Guess how negative her opinions on the GDR time are?
Depends how you measure. Some people like to think things were better when they had money, but there was nothing to buy, instead of the current state of affairs, where they have things to buy, but no money. Add to that that lots of things not measured in money were better, like education, social cohesion etc. and you get lots of people looking back with fond memories conveniently forgetting all the bad things.
> It is in these eastern Länder where the AfD has gained the most ground. Fear-mongering arguments against immigration and an Islamic takeover continue to attract scores of German citizens whose future economic prospects are less than rosy.
Not everyone is happy. You can have some people unhappy while others are being better off.
There has been at least one book about how "Germany/Germans are getting dumber", "The Big Crash is Coming" or something similar on the Spiegel Bestseller list at all times. So far, the big crash didn't come yet. These books don't talk about a market correction or a financial crisis like in 2008, but a total economic crash, because "a finite world can't have unlimited growth", because "capitalism", because "climate change".
People don't feel rich. In many families, both partners have a job. Median incomes didn't increase much in the last 10-15 years. With an after-tax monthly income of 5,160€ as a family (or 3,440€ as a single), you belong to the top 10% [1] (translates to roughly 100,000€ / 70,000€ pre-tax anually). The median monthly net income is 1,869€ (roughly around 35,000€ pre-tax anually).
At the same time, people are highly suspicious of the stock market. People have less time for their kids, which spend more time in the educational system. So people wonder if the educational system is really that great for their kids.
I think this is interesting. It's like a vicious cycle: According to [2], 23% of Germans own stocks (although I remember that this number used to be around 15% a few years ago). So, people read books about how everything is going to crash down soon, because they're suspicious of the stock market (and to be able to say "told you so" afterwards). At the same time, these books reinforce the idea that owning stocks is risky.
Most people would rather buy a home, but houses got very expensive in cities in the last 10 years. In major cities, a house for a family of 4 would cost around 800,000€ and more, which is quite expensive for the low salaries of 90% of the people.
Then, major newspapers now have articles about the climate crisis every day. There's the uncertainty of the Brexit. There is uncertainty about immigrants, but also uncertainty and fear of the rise of right-wing parties in Europe (and the AfD in Germany).
So, we have books about how "the system" is shit, how "the crash is coming", how "Germany gets dumber all the time", how "something needs to change". Add some fears about the before-mentioned topics and there's your new book every few months, same content, different cover.
These books also have in common that they cover topics that everyone has an opinion on, and that you can get really upset and angry over while not being in a position to really do anything about the "issues" they describe. As you say it's about how "something needs to change" but it's never the reader who has to change.
> Add some fears about the before-mentioned topics and there's your new book every few months, same content, different cover.
Talkshows and other media make these books even more profitable and popular. Publishing such a book almost guarantees that you'll be able to tour talkshows for a few weeks, give interviews to newspapers etc. as free marketing for your books.
Owning stocks is actually risky - in case of market crash (and it has happened often enough so that it's definitely possible as a once-in-a-lifetime event) you can lose big especially if you counted on it for pension/retirement purposes. Investment should always be done in context. Sometimes it's right to buy stocks, sometimes it isn't. Right now the market reaching sky-highs is not natural: there is no massive gain of productivity going on across industries so there should not be a massive uplift of all future earnings/values across the board.
Tangent - ordinarily I would consider it obnoxious to point this out, but I learned something and wanted to share it. As a native speaker, "the crash didn't come" sounds wrong to me - it should be "the crash hasn't come", but it took me a while to figure out why. I think the idea is that since you are saying "yet", you need to use the present perfect ("has not come"), which can imply an indefinite time (it might happen at some point, but we're not sure when). The simple past tense, "did not come", would be if we were referring to a past set time when something was expected to happen but didn't. (This seems like a very subtle distinction that I would consider exasperating if I was learning a new language, but I take it for granted in English!)
You summed it up pretty well. All of which is reinforcing itself. Could turn, under the wrong circumstances, into a self fulfilling prophecy. But than isn't that valid for almost every other industrial nation as well?
I read somewhere that the German billionaire class controls 1T dollars. Why do people earn only 5k after tax ? There seem to be very little opportunities for investment in stock market. Real estate prices too seem insane.
Bank interest rates are 0 and negative, so people can't leave their money in the bank. They either have to spend it, driving up house prices or invest in the market to get better return. With bank rates being so low, folks are paranoid and with all their nest eggs in the market, they pay more attention to it.
> Michael Winterhoff’s Deutschland Verdummt claims that German children today “have no tolerance for frustration, and they avoid all exertion.” By the time they graduate, half of them still “have the psyche of a small child.” The author of eight previous books on childhood development, Winterhoff’s primary concern is that children today have become “tyrants.” They don’t know proper boundaries; they have not been taught how to submit to parental and social authority. And this, Winterhoff says, is entirely the fault of parents themselves. Beginning in the 1990s, they have treated their children like friends and partners instead of acting like authority figures and moral guides, preferring to allow children the freedom to develop and move at their own pace instead of submitting to the adult order of things.
>> “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”
You can probably release this book every 30 years or so and have a bot replace contemporary parts and jargon.
He says that the development of children is negatively affected by adults, who lack authority by elevating children to their level. Information technology had further enabled children to fortify this power imbalance.
Maybe he has a point, but as a psychologist for children you probably get a warped image after a while. Job hazard probably.
He recommends adults to take walks in the park for example to get distance and perspective from the horrible stuff younger people post online. That can align with my wishes to ban all politicians from Twitter at least.
But I think it should be pretty controversial to say that younger people form some kind of tyranny while keeping demographics in Germany in mind. Well, easier to take advantage of people that believe you a fool.
Still, younger people are the end of civilization as we know it, as is tradition. I believe there never was a metric or any empirical evidence but it might just be one of these timeless classics people seem to love. Maybe there is a hint of truth in a way that people drawn to these stories do indeed feel overtaxed.
"not been taught how to submit" And a bet he wrote that unironically.
I remember a documentary on Berlin and Berlinners have a slang term there that basically means "you have been controlled" when one of the many petty bureaucrats, pulls you up over some trivial infraction
I can't stand reading modern Germans. They generally read and think just like English, for one thing, so that you can barely tell you've entered another language.
It is pleasant, however to retreat to the 19th-century Germans, and bathe in their erudition and learning, from the period before the world went sour.
There is still a fairly regular stream of German-language "serious" monographs coming out, written by philosophers, media theorists, etc. Not usually found on the Spiegel bestseller list, though.
[+] [-] ekianjo|6 years ago|reply
> Toleranz: Einfach Schwer (Tolerance Isn’t Easy)
is an improper translation. That's "Tolerance: Simply Difficult" and that translates fine in English too since you can keep the same style while being accurate.
[+] [-] rexgallorum2|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DoreenMichele|6 years ago|reply
Tolerance: Simply Hard
(Or Easily Hard)
It more closely mirrors the German cadence and I've generally translated schwer as hard. I always understood diffizil to be the correct translation of the word difficult.
Granted, I learned most of my German from my mother (plus a little self study and I lived there for nearly four years in my twenties), not in school. There are no doubt substantial gaps in my knowledge
[+] [-] justaguyonline|6 years ago|reply
Tolerance: Hardly Easy
[+] [-] em-bee|6 years ago|reply
i do believe that in english simply can always be used in place of just, it's just less common so tolerance: simply difficult has the same meaning and sounds better as a book title.
[+] [-] jadbox|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tr33house|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DanielleMolloy|6 years ago|reply
I have found the Spiegel list a bit weird for years, it contains a lot of highly light reading or polemic stuff like that guy yelling at today’s youth. That it does not include Amazon data explains quite something.
[+] [-] IfOnlyYouKnew|6 years ago|reply
The lists are at https://www.amazon.de/charts/2019-08-11/mostread/nonfiction?... https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/bestseller-buecher-belletristi...
It's all German, obviously. And note that Spiegel has at least two different lists, for hardcover and paperback (plus a few more, less relevant).
FWIW I'm surprised by the claim that Spiegel has too much "light-reading" in its bestsellers. The usual charge is that they exclude certain lowbrow titles/categories.
[+] [-] mxfh|6 years ago|reply
A list of German Language Bestseller lists: https://www.boersenverein.de/de/158283
[+] [-] s9w|6 years ago|reply
https://www.welt.de/kultur/article167043384/Spiegel-verteidi...
[+] [-] martin_a|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ekianjo|6 years ago|reply
- What is published in the German language (much smaller than in the English corpus)
- What is published at all (choices from local publishers)
- What matches the political/media agenda of the day/year: people are well known to read about the topics that is being talked about thru the numerous media channels they consume.
What is published and what sells is not always a reflection of the actual interests of the population at large - an easy proof is to show that it changes drastically from one year to another, akin to fashion more than anything else.
[+] [-] LeanderK|6 years ago|reply
> Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series looking at the books, authors, and ideas capturing the zeitgeist in various countries this summer.
Isn't capturing the zeitgeist exactly trying to understand what's occupying the thoughts of a country? Also I think you're greatly exaggerating the speed of "fashion". These are all issues we have been talking about for a long, long time. From tolerance [1] to education [2]. I don't see at all how this arcticle talks about a irrelevant topics, I can assure you these are all isssues we have been discussing for a longer time now.
[1] since the refugee crisis it's one of the main themes of political discourse. We also experience a rise of the right and far-right and many are not sure how to react to this change of the policial landscape and where tolerance ends. I was quite active in politics 4 years ago and I remember it being important back then (which was even before the refugee crisis) because I had contact with a group organizing a counter demonstration to a far-right gathering.
[2] During my time in school i was in one of the first in a new system and when I finished (5 years ago) many switched back to the old system. Our pisa-scores are still a major point for public dicsussion.
[+] [-] LargoLasskhyfv|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DogRunner|6 years ago|reply
At least in my filter bubble it is pretty standard nowadays.
[+] [-] mxfh|6 years ago|reply
Of course that is a long etablished genre, but lately it gets a bit too obvious regarding any socio-political sentiment, relationship, diet or parenting style[1].
Germany's book and magazine market is also drifting into that category a lot, as basic information gathering shits more and more towards "free" online sources.
[1] as stated in the OP, Winterhoff is contrarian to most current research and just peddles his own theories for some decades now, as well as being a well booked pundit in talk shows.
[+] [-] Havoc|6 years ago|reply
Is there some particular reason to be interested in what Germans are reading? As opposed to say Swedes?
[+] [-] ekianjo|6 years ago|reply
Not sure how to understand this. I have traveled to the DDR and to East Germany after the reunification many times, and by far and large life is much better than it ever was. People can actually buy cars instead of Trabants. Of course an economic gap has long lasting consequences (the long tail of economic policies) but what you should point out is how much better it is now than it was during the DDR era.
[+] [-] mxfh|6 years ago|reply
AfD is not thematizing any of this but is currently on a well funded campaign run to retcon and ursurp the civil movement of 89/90 as a nationalist movement and branding itself of it's heir. All this while having no problems of having high ranking Stasi-Officers in the party itself.
East Germany's larger cities with significant university clusters (Leipzig, Dresden, Halle, Rostock, Potsdam, Jena-Weimar-Erfurt) are doing well, the rest is aging away on well paved streets. That populist reigns there is no suprise if educated post reunifcation youth works in those cities or elsewhere and might return some day. But wouldn't write off the east yet, since a populist right with maximum 1/3 support of electorate is not too uncommon and it's all about how conservative CDU positions itself in relation to that.
[+] [-] dgellow|6 years ago|reply
I don’t believe that the article is saying that the situation was better during DDR time.
[+] [-] freeflight|6 years ago|reply
That's why for many, the GDR also meant stability and progress. I can still remember my grandmother living in a house with wood ovens for heating, no running warm water, and a literal drop toilet on the second floor where you had to manually rinse with a big water pitcher.
She then got moved to an apartment inside a newly built Plattenbau [2], offering quite some comforts that were previously reserved to only very few households.
After the wall fell, she moved out to another flat, but by now is back to living in one of those Plattenbau apartments. Guess how negative her opinions on the GDR time are?
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostalgie
[1] https://www.dw.com/de/ddr-als-billiglohnland-f%C3%BCr-den-we...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plattenbau
[+] [-] Kaiyou|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] watwut|6 years ago|reply
> It is in these eastern Länder where the AfD has gained the most ground. Fear-mongering arguments against immigration and an Islamic takeover continue to attract scores of German citizens whose future economic prospects are less than rosy.
Not everyone is happy. You can have some people unhappy while others are being better off.
[+] [-] WA|6 years ago|reply
People don't feel rich. In many families, both partners have a job. Median incomes didn't increase much in the last 10-15 years. With an after-tax monthly income of 5,160€ as a family (or 3,440€ as a single), you belong to the top 10% [1] (translates to roughly 100,000€ / 70,000€ pre-tax anually). The median monthly net income is 1,869€ (roughly around 35,000€ pre-tax anually).
At the same time, people are highly suspicious of the stock market. People have less time for their kids, which spend more time in the educational system. So people wonder if the educational system is really that great for their kids.
I think this is interesting. It's like a vicious cycle: According to [2], 23% of Germans own stocks (although I remember that this number used to be around 15% a few years ago). So, people read books about how everything is going to crash down soon, because they're suspicious of the stock market (and to be able to say "told you so" afterwards). At the same time, these books reinforce the idea that owning stocks is risky.
Most people would rather buy a home, but houses got very expensive in cities in the last 10 years. In major cities, a house for a family of 4 would cost around 800,000€ and more, which is quite expensive for the low salaries of 90% of the people.
Then, major newspapers now have articles about the climate crisis every day. There's the uncertainty of the Brexit. There is uncertainty about immigrants, but also uncertainty and fear of the rise of right-wing parties in Europe (and the AfD in Germany).
So, we have books about how "the system" is shit, how "the crash is coming", how "Germany gets dumber all the time", how "something needs to change". Add some fears about the before-mentioned topics and there's your new book every few months, same content, different cover.
[1]: https://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/2019-08/institut-der-deutsche...
[2]: https://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/2019-08/geldanlage-sparen-ver...
[+] [-] sc11|6 years ago|reply
> Add some fears about the before-mentioned topics and there's your new book every few months, same content, different cover.
Talkshows and other media make these books even more profitable and popular. Publishing such a book almost guarantees that you'll be able to tour talkshows for a few weeks, give interviews to newspapers etc. as free marketing for your books.
[+] [-] tatami|6 years ago|reply
I too had a lower number in memory (~11%), and the first result I looked up [1] showed 16%, sourced from [2].
[1]: https://orange.handelsblatt.com/artikel/62761 [2]: https://www.dai.de/files/dai_usercontent/dokumente/studien/2...
[+] [-] ekianjo|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lordgrenville|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hef19898|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thecleaner|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] segmondy|6 years ago|reply
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-08-06/how-th...
[+] [-] unknown|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] bubblewrap|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] qwsxyh|6 years ago|reply
Old man yells at cloud.
[+] [-] maze-le|6 years ago|reply
>> “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”
― Socrates
[+] [-] raxxorrax|6 years ago|reply
He says that the development of children is negatively affected by adults, who lack authority by elevating children to their level. Information technology had further enabled children to fortify this power imbalance.
Maybe he has a point, but as a psychologist for children you probably get a warped image after a while. Job hazard probably.
He recommends adults to take walks in the park for example to get distance and perspective from the horrible stuff younger people post online. That can align with my wishes to ban all politicians from Twitter at least.
But I think it should be pretty controversial to say that younger people form some kind of tyranny while keeping demographics in Germany in mind. Well, easier to take advantage of people that believe you a fool.
Still, younger people are the end of civilization as we know it, as is tradition. I believe there never was a metric or any empirical evidence but it might just be one of these timeless classics people seem to love. Maybe there is a hint of truth in a way that people drawn to these stories do indeed feel overtaxed.
[+] [-] C1sc0cat|6 years ago|reply
I remember a documentary on Berlin and Berlinners have a slang term there that basically means "you have been controlled" when one of the many petty bureaucrats, pulls you up over some trivial infraction
[+] [-] remarkEon|6 years ago|reply
Oh please. I feel like reading old books these days is some invitation for criticism about how "the youths" are the problem.
[+] [-] blarg1|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] romaaeterna|6 years ago|reply
It is pleasant, however to retreat to the 19th-century Germans, and bathe in their erudition and learning, from the period before the world went sour.
[+] [-] _delirium|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] panzagl|6 years ago|reply